Catweasel opinions, sources of info etc.

[Jim Leonard]

Dave Dunfield wrote:
>>>Do you have a Central Point Option Board (any rev) for your museum?
> 
> I have one of these - haven't installed it yet. From reading the documentation,
> it looks like it can copy disk to disk, and disk to temporary file on the hard
> drive and back to disk, but it does NOT look like it can copy a disk to a file
> and then at some point later in time copy the file back to the disk...

It can.  The disk-to-temporary-file doesn't delete the file.  I have used this 
many times to send protected diskette images electronically to friends overseas.

> I am mainly interested in read disk images to files for long term archival.
> Does anyone know if this is possible with the option board?

Yes, definitely.  The problem is finding hardware it runs well in.  To make 
decent images of DSDD disks, it needs an actual DSDD drive (no high-density 
drives).  It also needs a 386 or lower, as the software that drives the board 
does so with timing loops.

> The option board isn't really a good candidate for this anyway, as the format
> of the archived data is not documented (at least not in any of the material
> I have with the card), so you would be relying on a non-obtainable and
> unsupported card to restore the disks in the future - but I thought I might
> play with it a bit.

It will copy anything it sees; it writes the MFM/GCR/whatever bitstream to the 
file.

Or, you could try a simple parallel cable and Disk2FDI: 
http://www.oldskool.org/disk2fdi
-- 
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org)                    http://www.oldskool.org/
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